Tech leaders expecting to tap further on vendors, providers to manage skills gaps
Despite major ambitions in relation to AI, technology leaders across the world are struggling to find and retain talent with relevant skills, according to a new report.
Research from an IDC Infobrief, commissioned by Expereo, surveyed 650 technology leaders in global enterprises across Europe, US, and Asia Pacific to look at the opportunities and challenges they're currently facing.
It found that around a third of respondents are struggling to find and retain talent with skills on cybersecurity (39%), networking (36%), and data/AI/automation (35%).
Source: Enterprise Horizons 2024: Technology Leaders' Priorities on their Digital Business Journey
"Cybersecurity skills, networking skills (especially in medium-sized companies) and data/AI/automation skills (especially in large and very large organisations) are highly demanded but difficult to find across the globe," the report read.
The findings are in line with recent warnings from the World Economic Forum that said the cybersecurity industry is short of nearly four million professionals, and it is expected to balloon to more than 85 million by 2030.
Expereo's report found that to address the skills gap, respondents are already expecting to increase their use of external partners, such as vendors or managed service providers, in the following fields:
- Networking (49%)
- Cybersecurity (46%)
- Cloud (40%)
- Data, AI, automation (35%)
- General IT operations/support (16%)
Strong AI ambitions
The shortage of talent comes amid strong AI ambitions from across the world. Expereo's report revealed that 13% of leaders are already operationalising AI initiatives at scale, while 35% are already moving forward with caution.
Another 42% are also "excited and ready" to take on AI initiatives, according to the report.
Source: Enterprise Horizons 2024: Technology Leaders' Priorities on their Digital Business Journey
In fact, organisations are already planning on the following AI initiatives over the next two to three years:
- Cybersecurity initiatives (45%)
- Employee applications (45%)
- Customer-facing applications (36%)
- Financial and operational applications (33%)
- Digital marketing tools (28%)
But in addition to people problems, tech leaders also cited concerns over AI governance or ethics (36%) as a major obstacle to implementing AI within the organisation.
Others cited the lack of right capabilities from external tech partners (29%), regional variations in ability to implement AI initiatives (28%), and the pace of change (28%), according to the report.
Ben Elms, CEO of Expereo, said tech leaders need to keep pace with market innovations, customer expectations, and fierce competition when it comes to AI.
This comes with the need to ensure that the tech is responsibly and effectively adopted in the organisation, he added.
"This is a difficult act to balance, and without the necessary skills in place, driven by competition for AI and core networking talent, CIOs should look to outsource crucial expertise, and partner with the right technology providers that can offer the local expertise and growth initiatives that work for them," Elms said in a statement.
